Do you like the color Blue?
by R. R. Ten'ou
Summary: Oneshot sequel to Capricious. Blue is a big brother’s color …but blue isn’t only my color. Blue belongs to someone else as well.


Disclaimer: Do not own TMNT… wish I could borrow one of them for a day… but that's not going to happen. For now I'll just content myself with daydreams.

Author's Notes: This takes place just after Capricious. If you haven't read Capricious, I highly suggest doing so… as you will be lost without it – very, _very _lost.

Lots of thanks goes out to my friend, KameTerra, for beta-ing this ficlet (twice!) for me. : )

And, as always, reviews and opinions are read carefully and appreciated.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

**Do you like the color Blue?**

From the POV of Candon Nadel

By R. R. Ten'ou

_Do you like the color blue?_

Of all the odd, off-the-wall goodbyes I have ever heard… Moose, you really take the cake. I have no idea why she would ask me such a simple question right before I left – left to pursue my life's dream completely across the country. Yet I can't help but feel like there was some hidden meaning – something only Moose would have in mind.

What could she have meant? I stare out the window at the passing scenery – the things I hadn't seen since I'd moved in. The three short months that I've lived here were filled with worry – warranted worry. We've been through so much in such a short amount of time…

So why see me off with such a question? Do I like the color blue?

Of course I like the color blue.

Blue takes me back to one of my earliest memories - at five years old. It was Easter, and as per tradition in my family, my baby sister and I would get an Easter basket with one stuffed animal and various other goodies in it. The baskets were homemade, unlike those cheap ones you find in the grocery store complete with dollar store toys and unpersonalized meaning. My mom was never like that. She'd make up a basket and use colored cellophane to wrap it in.

For days and days beforehand, I'd kept telling my dad that I wanted a green basket. Green was my favorite color. Green this, green that. It had to be green.

Evidently Dad was the wrong person to be telling this to.

_I awoke on Easter Sunday to find a bright, blue basket sitting on the foot of my bed. I was none too happy for the discovery, and being a small child of five, I vented my frustrations in a childlike way. I cried, and cried, and cried. _

_As I sat acting like my five year old self, my cracked bedroom door opened fully and in toddled my three year old sister, Moose – or at that time, (because she had not earned the nickname as of yet) Piper._

"_Why you cwy?" she asked in her tiny voice. If anyone outside the family ever heard her talk, they wouldn't have been able to understand her audible half-gibberish. But I knew. _

"_It's green." I sniffed. My nose felt runny, and I was compelled to wipe it on my pajama sleeve._

"_I wike bwoo." Moose said._

"_Then you can have it." _

"_No. I pink. Bwoo is big bwothew's cowuh." She said matter-of-factly. As I looked at her serious face, I knew it had to be true. _

Blue is a big brother's color.

Blue is _my_ color.

It's funny how a simple question can trigger a memory from out of the blue. Heh… I made a pun. Seriously though – I never thought I'd be bringing up thoughts from so long ago over the matter of a favorite color.

And that's not the only memory.

When I was fourteen, I'd met Stan – my best friend and bandmate. I couldn't sing worth beans, so he'd accompany me in song when I played my guitar. We were good, or so the relatives had gushed. So after weeks of practice we'd joined the high school talent show. We'd gotten a few more guys to join up with us – a drummer and a bass player. We were set.

The night of the show we were backstage fiddling with our instruments, antsy and nervous about our first live performance.

"_Yo Candon. Isn't that your sister?" the drummer asked. I turned to the back door and saw that, sure enough, Moose was heading in our direction with what had looked like a pile of laundry on her arm._

"_Hey Moose." Stan called. "Come to wish us luck?"_

"_More than that. I made these for you guys." She held one up and I recognized it instantly as a tee-shirt. They were each in a different color and had our newly designed band logo on the front. _

"_What do we look like? Power Rangers?" The bass player laughed as Moose threw a green one at him._

"_I think they're great." Stan said as he accepted the red one. _

_She threw a black one at the drummer and then held up a blue one for me to see._

"_You like?" she asked. I was so… touched by the thought that I simply nodded in response._

"_But why blue? Candon's not smart." The drummer laughed again, making yet another Power Rangers reference._

"_Shut up, idiot." I called out. "It's cause blue is my color."_

Blue is a big brother's color.

Blue is _my_ color.

I can't help but ponder the meaning of Moose's question as I stare out the window of the taxi taking me to the airport. It's going to be some trip if I don't ever figure this out. Maybe if I think about something else for a while?

My stomach is growling. I knew I should have hidden a few of those cupcakes from the party last night – even if they were yellow cake and topped with nasty blue buttercream frosting. But no – I didn't think about it then, and before long, they were polished off by a group of mutant turtles and their two human friends.

It was a nice memory though – to know that Moose had done something nice with my favorite color. It's another to add to my collection.

The entire event was a nice memory.

In fact, the cupcakes had started a conversation on color… hadn't they?

"Something about Michelangelo complaining about the lack of orange…" I said aloud without thinking.

"You say somethin', buddy?" the cab driver asked from the front.

"Huh? No. Just thinking out loud."

That's right. Mike had been teasing Moose about the color… but why? She'd baked those especially for me… with my favorite color.

"_Though I agree that orange is the ultimate color of colors on the wheel, blue happens to be a very nice color too." Moose retorted._

"_Yeah… but come on Moose! Orange," Mike went on animatedly. _

"_I happen to think blue is a very good color." Leonardo jumped to her defense. _

_Mikey rolled his eyes. "Oh yes… it's such a wonderful color of blah!"_

"_At least it's a primary color." _

"_Red too." Raph cut in. _

"_Blue and red make purple." Donnie voiced. _

"_So where does that leave orange?" Leo said in a teasing voice._

_Mike stood, mouth agape for a few moments, thinking to himself. "Purple is a girl's color. So it doesn't count in this argument. Red is just overdone…" he was making things up by this point. "And blue… blue…" everyone stood expectantly, waiting for his answer. "Blue is a big brother color. And nobody likes those." He finished and everyone had a good laugh._

Blue is a big brother's color.

…but blue isn't only _my_ color. Blue belongs to someone else as well.

And suddenly it clicked. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before… she wasn't asking me if I liked blue as a favorite color – she was asking me something entirely different.

I step out of the taxi cab and take in a great gulp of cool, crisp air. Closing the door behind me, I look up at the sky and the two airplanes that slowly glide across the azure sky.

**Yes Moose. I do like blue.**


End file.
